The Land of the Lune - Drakkar Press

The Wenning from Keasden Beck ...
The Wenning runs by the Forest of Mewith, below
the northern slopes of Burn Moor. Mewith is
an area of undulating farmland, with scattered
farmsteads, isolated woodlands, many paths and tracks,
and no discernible pattern. It is crossed by many becks
that flow off Burn Moor, where the county border runs
northwest past the Queen of Fairies Chair and the Great
Stone of Fourstones. The former is notable only for its
name but the latter is a remarkable 4m-high monolith,
from which there is a good view across to the Three
Peaks.
The Wenning flows calmly between banks
of alder, with birds such as common sandpiper,
dipper and grey wagtail, although sadly there are
few of the sea trout for which the river was once
known, partly because so many alien rainbow
trout have escaped from a trout farm. The river
reaches High Bentham and, shortly after, Low
Bentham, which is older but now smaller. High
Bentham expanded north, south and east and
Low Bentham expanded north, south, and west
but recently they have taken tentative steps along
the B6480 towards one another. I will consider
this dumbbell shape to be Bentham.
Its leaflet for tourists begins with the sentence
“Bentham is not a tourist centre”, which must
be welcome news for those staying at the large
caravan park. Bentham was once more positive,
for it had pioneered the idea of a holiday camp,
long before Butlin and Pontin. From 1908 to
1925 a tented village was set up on the banks of
the Wenning for holidaymakers: single men on
the north bank, everyone else on the south bank,
with a suspension bridge in between.
Bentham considers itself a market town
and shopping centre with an industrial heritage.
It appeared as Benetain in the Domesday Book
and was granted a market charter in 1306. High
Bentham Mill, using a millrace from the Wenning
near Bentham Bridge, was established in 1750,
possibly on the site of an old corn mill. It later
Right above: Mewith Head Hall.
Right below: Great Stone of Fourstones.
Two pages before: Upper Roeburndale.
The Wenning from Keasden Beck ... 171
worked in tandem with Low Mill (built 1785), mainly
spinning flax. By 1795 the mills were importing Baltic
flax to make sailcloths. The owner in 1814, Hornby
Roughsedge, bought Bentham House, which no longer
exists, and the manorial rights to Ingleton.
It was Mr Roughsedge who had funded the ill-fated
hospice on Ingleborough (mentioned on page 130). His
benefaction was more gratefully received in Bentham,
where he paid for St Margaret’s Church (Margaret
coincidentally being Mrs Roughsedge’s name), built in
1837 on a hill that now overlooks the unstylish Bentham
Bridge, which replaced one washed away in 1964.
This is Chapter 11 of The Land of the Lune (2nd edition), http://www.drakkar.co.uk/landofthelune.html, Copyright © 2010 John Self